1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to mounting and component holder apparatuses and assemblies for holding rigid components in downhole bore or downhole collar based applications. It may be particularly advantageous to hold a circuit board for example, in a downhole bore or downhole collar assembly, and more particularly in a measurement while drilling or logging while drilling component thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
It is often necessary to hold a rigid component in a mounting or component holder apparatus or assembly such that the component is prevented from moving. This is particularly true in downhole bore assemblies where it may be necessary to mount the rigid component on an enclosure in the downhole bore assembly.
Conventional technologies for holding rigid components in a downhole bore assembly may involve extensive modification and/or milling of an enclosure to allow for the mounting of circuit boards, sensors or electronics thereupon. The rigid components may be held in situ on an outer surface of the enclosure such as by mounting screws and through-holes or they may be embedded in potting material. The circuit boards, sensors or electronics may be placed on the enclosure one after another, linearly and the enclosure may then be placed in a downhole bore assembly component. Because of the extensive milling that may be required to modify and mount the enclosures, they often need to be made of strong materials and thus the enclosures are often metallic. This makes it necessary for the enclosures to be electrically isolated from racks holding the circuit boards, sensors or electronics. In addition, the fabrication of such enclosures can be time consuming and costly. Because of the way the enclosures are customized, the orientation of the metallic racks on the enclosures may not be visually discernible. Further, because the racks are often disposed one after another, the length of the enclosure must be at least as long as the total length of the printed circuit boards disposed therein.